Heinali: A Wave Crashes

Heinali

A Wave Crashes

Fluttery Records

We know – on some level, now – what to expect from Fluttery Records. Certainly quality – that’s for sure. But also leftfield sound/art/music amalgams, traces of electronica or artists who have dabbled and them moved on through versions of audio-collage and sound-design. So it is with A Wave Crashes by Heinali we have electroacoustic waves of noise as filtered through synths and digital sound processors. It’s built from improvisation, the self-taught Ukrainian noise-artist (aka Oleg Shpudeiko) builds layers and layers of noise, allowing the sound to pile up atop itself for an eventual release.

We know this – in a sense – because of the title. So the first three instrumental pieces here are all called A Wave Crashes (Pts 1-3) and so from an almost angry swirl of dissonance into full-blooded noise across the first tracks we arrive at the album’s centrepiece, the organ-based eventual-tranquility of A Wave Crashes III – its ten-minute running time is a third of this short record.

The wave crashes – after this immense build-up and we’re left with the closing instrumental, A Cloud Withdrew From A Sky. It’s a new beginning, a cautious unfurling of soft chime-chords that twinkle and evaporate – it’s a return to calm after the menacing build of the wave before its crash. This sound sculpture plays out as both soundtrack and audio-documentary, the music being the theme, the themes within the music setting up a conceptual story.

It’s largely uneasy listening but for the pay-off and I do believe it’s worth it. But this is not music for everyone. Some will question whether it’s even music. I’m not sure I have the answer for that.